In the rapidly advancing semiconductor manufacturing industry, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) FinFET devices are used in many logic and other applications and are integrated into various different types of semiconductor devices. FinFET devices include semiconductor fins in which the channel and source/drain regions for the transistor are formed. A gate is formed over and along the sides of a portion of the semiconductor fins. The increased surface area of the channel and source/drain regions in a FinFET, as compared to planar transistors having a same device area, results in faster, more reliable and better-controlled semiconductor transistor devices.
IC devices that include CMOS FinFETs also require other semiconductor structures and transistors, such as diodes and bipolar junction transistors (BJTs). These other semiconductor structures and transistors are formed along side and concurrently with the FinFETs using the same materials and processes. In one example of thermal sensor application, diodes are formed using a p-junction of silicon germanium (SiGe) that is epitaxially grown on n-type doped silicon between isolation features and an n-junction of silicon carbide (SiC) formed across an isolation feature from the p-junction. A NPN BJT is formed using two such diodes that share the n-junction.
Diodes and BJT structures formed along side FinFETs using the same manufacturing processes that utilize fin structures formed for FinFETs while minimizing additional manufacturing steps and have improved electrical properties continue to be sought.